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Index
Cover
Title
Contents
Introduction
Space exploration
Putting stuff up into space is a waste of money
Rocket science is hard
Sputnik was the first man-made object in space
Laika the dog was the first animal in space
Astronauts have escaped Earth’s gravity
Yuri Gagarin was the first human to orbit the Earth and land his craft safely
Spaceships need heat shields or they’ll burn up from friction on re-entry
The space shuttle was the world’s first reusable spacecraft
The astronauts on the Space Shuttle Challenger were the first humans to die in space
Astronauts need special pens to write in zero gravity
Your body would explode in the vacuum of space
The Earth in space
The Earth’s day lasts 24 hours
Copernicus was first to claim that the Earth moves round the Sun
The Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from the Moon
It’s a long way up into space
Rockets are the only way to send objects into space
You can reach space by balloon
Fly me to the Moon
The Moon is geologically inactive
The Moon always looks the same, so it can’t be turning
Apollo 11 was the first spacecraft to land on the Moon
The first words spoken on the Moon were ‘That’s one small step for a man …’
Other lunar firsts
All the Moon rocks on Earth came from the Apollo missions
Overwhelming evidence shows that the Moon landings were faked
Other Moon conspiracies
No human has travelled further than the Moon
Out into the Solar System
Saturn is the only ringed planet
Mercury is the hottest planet
Earth is the only place in the Solar System with oceans
You can tell a comet’s direction from its tail
The Solar System ends at Pluto
The Sun is at the centre of the Solar System
The Sun is a big ball of fire
Light from the Sun takes eight minutes to reach Earth
Everything in the Solar System gets its name from mythology
Across the Universe
The Pole Star is the brightest in the sky
The constellations were all named by the ancients
Astronomers spend their time looking through telescopes
To study the stars you need expensive kit – astronomy is only for professionals
Space is black
Space is silent
Space is as empty and cold as it gets
We know what most of the Universe looks like
Space oddities
Mozart wrote ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’
Other musical mishaps
Mars contains a network of canals
Humans first attempted to contact aliens in the 1960s
Space blooper reel
Are you pronouncing it wrong?
Other myths and misnomers
Let’s start a new wave of false facts
Index
Acknowledgments
About the author
Copyright
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